


Coda

by Nevcolleil



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Crossover, First Kiss, Invasion, M/M, but a little more of it, the date that was made canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 19:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8727877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevcolleil/pseuds/Nevcolleil
Summary: Oliver had no delusions when he agreed to go out with Barry. He wasn't chasing the smooth burn of liquor down his throat.He was chasing that laughter. He was looking for Barry's small smiles and big grins.





	

Drinks, apparently.

That's what they'd do if they did... this, regularly. Share a couple of drinks in a quiet corner of a dimly lit bar, actual candlelight reflecting back at him in Barry's whisky-colored eyes before they squint as Barry - god, _finally_ \- let's go and laughs, long and hard.

One drink becomes two becomes four... But Oliver had no delusions when he agreed to this. He wasn't chasing the smooth burn of liquor down his throat, the warmth pooling in his belly and slowly spreading through his limbs, loosening leftover tension from - fuck - _saving the world from ALIENS_.

He was chasing that laughter.

He was following Barry's little smiles and big grins - trying to fill up on those. And they're making him even headier than the alcohol is. Oliver wanted to see where Barry might take him when they aren't headed straight into danger...

Or maybe he'd just realized he's ready for a different kind of dangerous, under the lead of a certain bright-eyed speedster.

When the buzz in his head is just strong enough to convince him he can shrug it off if he got things wrong - but not so strong he can't honestly say this is him talking, rather than the liquor - Oliver asks Barry the question that's been sitting with him at the bar all night.

"So what was your first choice when I asked what we would do if I stayed in Central City this evening?"

Barry doesn't stammer or spit out his drink, or flail off of his barstool. But he's maybe a bit more still than Oliver's used to seeing him. Certainly more so than he'd been just a moment earlier, gesturing in wide arches as he told Oliver another metahuman story.

"What?"

"You just looked like there was something else you were gonna say before you suggested this bar. I've been wondering what that might be."

"I... don't know what you're talking about," Barry says easily, a gentle laugh making his little frown of confusion seem almost convincing.

But in the glow of the nearest candle, Oliver can see the tips of Barry's ears turning pink. He sees Barry swallow.

He doesn't necessarily _try_ to flash Barry his 'sexy shark' smile, as Felicity calls it ("IS that a thing?" she'd asked. "A sexy shark? Like, all predatory and hungry- I think you've made that a thing, Oliver.")

But Barry's reaction _is_ satisfying.

His smile fades. But then he swallows again, and his lips part... Oliver does nothing to hide the way his eyes track the tip of Barry's tongue when it comes out to wet lips gone dry as Barry takes obvious, carefully evened breaths.

"I- You don't- Have you... had too many of those, buddy?" Barry's stammering finally catches up with him, hand clenching almost too tight on the glass in his hand, and his nervous laughter is much less convincing the second time around. 

Ollie feels his smile turning fond.

"We can say that, if you'd like," he says, pretending to take great care in setting his own glass aside so he has an excuse to look away, to give Barry a moment to compose himself. "But I think we both know I can hold my liquor better than that."

Barry _is_ composed when Oliver looks back.

More so than Oliver's ever seen him. Serious. Maybe it shouldn't stir that warmth in Oliver's gut like it does, make him feel the same static he feels when a fight is brewing, but Oliver has much better instincts these days than he once did. The Dominators reminded him of that.

"Then why would you ask me that?" Barry says. No back down in his voice, just caution.

'Our little speedster is all grown up,' Oliver can practically hear Felicity's voice in the back of his head. Enough of the shots he's been downing all night and Oliver might admit he could almost cry about that, but right now a sober-headed, self-reliant Barry Allen is nothing to cry over. 

If Barry hadn't come as far as he has as a hero - as a man - Oliver might not have been able to work up the nerve that has him turning on his stool. Leaning into Barry's space.

The little jolts of surprise and pleasure Oliver sees sparking in Barry's eyes make the warmth inside him sing even faster - because if he'd read Barry wrong, Barry could hide any reaction he wanted from Oliver like it had never been. He could move back out of Oliver's space faster than Ollie could see him.

"Because maybe I had some other ideas, too. And I only asked because I wanted to see if any of our ideas lined up."

Barry's eyes are goddamned hypnotic in the candlelight. Not that Oliver can even see the candles anymore. The bar. The other patrons... He and Barry might as well be all alone, away in-

The world blurs. It twists and rerights itself - in a frankly disturbing fashion, considering how much he drank tonight - but when it stops, Oliver is standing in an apartment he's never been in before. It's dark, but not too dark. Barry took the time to light another freaking set of candles right here just for them. They glow from several spots around the room, but Oliver thinks Barry's eyes might just glow brighter.

"Okay, that was- Unwise, potentially? After you've been drinking and-" 

"You think?" But Oliver can't even pretend to be annoyed. 

Barry took the time to find *more candles*. Before they'd even finished confirming there is a cause. Oliver's face is doing something he can't entirely interpret from his side of it. Something that would have been expected of him in that other reality - the one the Dominators created for him - but not so much here. Luckily, Barry is busy looking everywhere but directly at Oliver.

"I just- Didn't want to give you answer in front of all those people... It's kind of an important answer, I mean. And I've been waiting kind of a long time to give it to you?" Barry rambles. Then looks frantic. " _My answer_ , I mean! Not. Not what that sounded- Not that I wouldn't love to- _oh my god_ , why would I even say that?"

Okay, the flailing is a little satisfying too, now that it's arrived. But watching Barry begin to doubt himself is not what Oliver's here for.

He closes the short space between them while Barry holds himself still and snaps his mouth shut, watching Oliver warily - and then with wonder as he finally appears to see what Oliver can feel has taken over his expression.

"I get it, Barry."

"You- You _do_?"

Despite himself, Oliver really can't help but tease.

"Well, I'd _like_ to. Or give actually, as long as you're up for it," he says.

He's not sure whether Barry blushes brighter, here, in his apartment, as Oliver reaches forward finally - fucking _finally_ \- to touch, or if the lighting'system just that much better. (Barry really did outdo himself with the candles.)

But he'll take it, whatever puts that deep red in Barry's red cheeks. And he'll thankful for it. So long as-

"Uh... just one thing," Oliver says, reluctantly leaning back just as Barry tentatively leans forward, eyes going half-lidded and intention clear.

Barry blinks, wariness returning. "Yeah?"

"You know how we said we'd have to do 'this' more often?" Oliver asks.

He can literally see Barry preparing himself for what he thinks Oliver's gonna say next. 

And how obviously _not_ okay Barry is with it.

"Yeah. Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm absolutely okay with whatever-"

"Good," Oliver says, before Barry can get too comfortable in his misconception. He soothes away the tension at the corner of Barry's lips as he freezes up, trying to hold in his flinch at Oliver's supposed rejection.

"Because that 'often' is gonna have to be 'really, really often' if we're gonna start this," he says.

Seeing realization and the relief that comes with it, the fucking _joy_ , steal over Barry's face makes the warmth inside Oliver blossom into something he isn't sure he even felt in the fantasy world of the Dominators.

"Start, huh?" Barry asks, his voice shaky with excitement and hope rather than nervousness.

And Oliver was wrong. _That_ is what he was looking for when he went out with Barry tonight. He hadn't heard that voice in too long. It makes him feel higher than even the Dominators had, knowing he's hearing it again because of something he's done right.

"Absolutely," he promises - that and so many things - as he presses his lips to Barry's for the first time and Barry sucks in a baited breath.


End file.
